Joey, an incident-packed game today. I don’t quite know where to start with that one.
It’s tough. The goal we conceded is a foul, not that anyone will care because we’ve lost the game of football.
It’s a rugby tackle in the box and where the ball was put in was where James Connolly would have been had he not been pulled to the ground.
The official misses it and to compound it, we go up the other end. I don’t know what Lofty is doing, he’s saying he’s just trying to protect himself with the keeper coming out.
The linesman, who is far away as anybody on the opposite side, decides it’s a swinging elbow and they have dismissed him for what must be violent conduct. We’ve got a few different angles that show the contact that was made, which was minimal if any, and we’ll appeal that instantly because we’ll need to if we want him available for Tuesday night.
We’ll also be sending a few clips. MK did it do us the other day with Sam Finley’s retrospective ban, and there is an elbow in there from (Lewis) Montsma which is beyond the threshold for me. That’s why our players were aggrieved, but nothing given. The linesman misses it and it’s really frustrating.
Did you have a shout for a penalty at the end as well?
I think we had two. Aaron thinks it is and Harry thinks it could have been, but we were never going to get anything off the geezer today.
I actually thought he was going to send Jarell off and compound it for making a challenge 10 yards inside his own half.
Again, it’s soul-destroying. You will text Mike Jones and the PGMOL will send their written reasons back like the Accrington game, but unfortunately we’re four defeats on the spin and we have nothing to show for it apart from the character and spirit which was shown by a really young group today.
That will stand us in good stead. I have seen loads of things I am really proud of from my players today. I cannot fault them today and we’ll be better for that.
That second half, in the four-match losing run in the league that second half is probably the best I have seen you play. Does that give you hope they are heading in the right direction?
It’s always disappointing when you lose games. Nothing can replace the winning feeling, so we’ve got to get back to that as soon as possible with Ipswich and Burton to come at home.
The games come at you think and fast, which is good for us. You don’t have a lot of time to dwell on it. I’m hoping we can use the anger and frustration of today because our players feel aggrieved at some of the decisions that were made to spur that into positive results and performances in the near future.
Joey, do you think that second half could be a turning point for you? You played it quite cleverly and built from there.
We’ve got 37 points. Lincoln have won today and they have gone level with us. We have had a bit of a poor run recently, dropping points.
Today, when decisions go against you, they give a goal against you and you go down to 10 and you have a couple of penalty shouts. It’s frustrating. I wish I could say what I really felt was happening but they’ll fine you and they’ll drag you up in front of them and they’ll feel like this is another manager moaning because their team got beat.
All we want is a fair game, that’s all, and the officials shouldn’t be deciding contests. It should be the players on the pitch with the ability and talent deciding contests, not a few fellas who have been working all week and turned up today and decided to officiate the game.
It won’t change until they go professional. They are in danger of ruining the football pyramid at League One and League Two level.
I’m not going to speak about it after this week because I do feel speaking about it in recent weeks and being vocal about it on Twitter has not helped.
James ends up in a heap for that first goal. Can you break down what happened there? Was it a block?
It’s not a block, it’s a rugby tackle. He pulls him to the floor. He puts his leg in front. If you watch Volkanovski vs Makhachev tonight, it’s a judo roll and the ball lands exactly where James would have been had he not been fouled by the player.
The referee said he thought it was two players going at it and it’s clearly not. If we have VAR, that’s disallowed. If we have VAR, we don’t think Lofty gets sent off and if we have VAR, Montsma gets sent off.
That’s where we are. We’ve got to keep scrapping and it gets no easier, we’ve got Ipswich at home on Tuesday night and I can’t wait to get in our stadium.
Why was Paul Coutts missing today?
He was ill yesterday on the way up and it didn’t get better overnight. It got a lot worse to the point where we have had to isolate him and he’s gone back to Bristol on his own in a car because he was feeling so poorly.
When it rains, it pours. We’re in a bit of a bad spell and it’s not the first time in my life I’ve been here and I have to emphasise how proud I am of that young team today.
There were a lot of young players out there, captained by Az who is 25 and they just kept scrapping and having a go to get back in the game. If they do that when the chips are down then we’re going to be in fine fettle when officials turn up and call a square go.
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